Scary End Times Prophecy and Preparation – Purity 1459
Purity 1459 09/24/2024 Purity 1459 Audio Podcast
Purity 1459 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a clear blue sky over a tranquil lake scene comes to us from Nicole Furch who shared this picture of Lake Tahoe back on social media during her trip out west back on September 11th.
Well, It’s Tuesday and while our future may not be as clear as the skies in today’s photo we can rest assured that God knows the end from the beginning and no matter how uncertain things may seem to us, nothing will take Him by surprise as He moves history to align with His ultimate purposes.
This morning I was reading in Luke 17, and I wanted to share two things that I have gleaned from the words of Jesus.
The first involves how we can increase our faith. As Jesus’ disciples, we have a real desire to be more like Him and to grow in our faith and apparently it was the same way for Jesus’s first disciples as they request that He “Increase our faith in Luke 17:5. To which Jesus responds by saying:
Luke 17:6-10 (NKJV)
6 … “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
7 And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’?
8 But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’?
9 Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. 10 So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’ “
While the mulberry tree reference may inspire us to try for the impossible, Jesus’ ultimate advice to increase our faith is to obey His commands and to not think that we have done anything particularly special for doing so. His words indicate that an increase of faith won’t just be gifted to us (Come at once and sit down and eat) but that our faith will increase in the process of, and as a reward for, faithfully serving (and afterward you will eat and drink). So if we want to be “blessed” with an increase of faith, we should consider serving and following the Lord with simple obedience rather than by expecting a magical increase in our faith by asking. As we are disciples, we walk in Christ’s ways obediently and find the increase in our faith as we go. This advice helps us to stay faithful even when we don’t know what is coming around the bend.
This brings us to point number two which comes from Jesus’ response to the Pharisee’s question of when the kingdom of God would come in Luke 17:20. Jesus had a lot to say about that but the point I wish to focus on can be gathered from
Luke 17:26-30 (NKJV) where Jesus said:
26 And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man:
27 They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
28 Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; 29 but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.
30 Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
These statements make it clear that just as the people in Noah and Lot’s day didn’t know anything was coming, we won’t know beforehand when Jesus makes his return. That can be pretty scary, but it could also be a relief.
Even though there is much concern for the future because of wars and uncertain future outcomes that will affect our lives, we won’t be able to predict when Jesus will come back to deliver God’s wrath and to reclaim the earth. As scary and uncertain as the “end times” may seem to us – we should carry on about our business by faithfully obeying and following Jesus each day because we can trust Him with today, tomorrow, and forever.
David Jeremiah’s Turning Point devotional for today touches on the subject of prophecy and the end times and I am sharing it on the blog today to encourage us that the end times are actually good news for the believer and follower of Christ . David Jeremiah writes:
Runaway Train?
Therefore comfort one another with these words. – 1 Thessalonians 4:18
“A man once told his pastor, “I really don’t have much interest in studying prophecy.” His pastor said, “Oh my, that means you must be neglecting the books of Daniel, Zechariah, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Revelation, and vast portions of Isaiah and Ezekiel, along with Matthew 24 and 25. That’s a lot of Bible to ignore!”
After the apostle Paul wrote the predictions God gave him about the Rapture of the Church, he said, “Therefore comfort one another with these words.” The study of prophecy is tremendously comforting. It reminds us God controls the course of history and has a glorious conclusion for all His children. We’re not destined to crash with the hopelessness of a runaway train. Instead, God is the Conductor, and He will get us safely home. Just as the predictions of His first coming were perfectly fulfilled, so will be the prophecies about His Second Coming.
Hope is the anticipation of wonderful future events. The details of prophecy may seem daunting, but the basic outlines are pretty simple. Jesus is coming again, and heaven is our destiny. Let’s comfort one another with these truths.” – David Jeremiah
Bible prophecy helps us to better understand the future…. And gives us hope in a hopeless age. – Tim LaHaye
Amen.
Those of us who are in Christ need not fear for the future. The words of Jesus and Holy Scripture show us that we won’t be able to prepare for Christ’s return with any degree of certainty but we are assured that God’s plan for the future is good and that we will be ultimately protected and welcomed into His kingdom and His presence whether we go to see Him at the hour of our death or if Jesus should suddenly return to earth.
God is good and we can trust Him. So we need not fear the “end times” and we can live with expectant hope and joy knowing that God has already rescued us when we put our faith in Jesus.
Sorry for the clickbait title, if we are in Christ we don’t need to be afraid of the “end times” and all we have to do to be prepared for them is to faithfully follow Jesus in the way we should go.
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Kruis.
( While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )
This morning’s meditation verse comes from the section on the Forgiveness of Sins (God’s Forgiveness).
1 Timothy 2:5-6 (ESV)
5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
Today’s verse is the second of two passages of scripture that fall under the thirty-second point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on the Forgiveness of Sins (God’s Forgiveness).
32. Jesus is the only one through whom one can be saved and enjoy the forgiveness of sins.
Today’s Bible verse reminds us that there is only one who can be a mediator between God and man – Jesus Christ!
One thing this brings up for me, as a former Catholic, is that we need not go to God through anyone else than Jesus and after we put our faith in Christ, we can go right to the Father ourselves. Jesus is the mediator – He gives us peace with God and once we have it we don’t need any go-betweens to speak to God for us.
We don’t need a clergyman, priest, or beloved saint to speak on our behalf. So don’t pray to Mary or any other saint in eternity to help you. Take you prayers to Fathe God because Jesus acting as our mediator has brought us into His kingdom as beloved sons and daughters and we can pray and go to Our Father who art in Heaven all by ourselves.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from “According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament” By Stephen F. Olford – A Collection of Devotional Journals: 1940-1941.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Olford’s books for your own private study and to support his work. This resource is available online for less than $10 at many sites.
EVENING READING: JAMES 1
“Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak,
slow to wrath.” – James 1:19
James’ great theme is Works. He teaches that faith without works is dead. He puts forward the manward aspect of the Christian life, emphasizing what the Lord said when He gave utterance to these words, “By their fruits you will know them” (Matt. 7:20). Thus, James’ epistle is one of practical religion.
Here are three practical truths:
Swift to Hear. Ready to hear. This is a thing lacking in many lives: the readiness to hear. How ready was the Lord Jesus!
Slow to Speak. This is, of course, in proportion to hearing. One should always be more ready to hear than to speak.
Slow to Wrath. Hastiness! But James says, “The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20).
O, that my life and testimony
would be known by these truths. Amen.[1]
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“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”
Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1] Stephen Olford and Heather Olford, According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament, A Collection of Devotional Journals 1940-1941 (Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 2008).
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